A digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based at the University of Kentucky.
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Friday, October 21, 2016

Feds estimate that 1.1 million more people will sign up on Obamacare exchanges in 2017

About 1.1 million more people are projected to sign up for health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges for 2017, according to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. The agency estimates that 13.8 million people will sign up in 2017, compared to 12.7 million in 2016, Toni Clarke reports for Reuters. Officials said "average monthly enrollment in 2017 is estimated at 11.4 million people, up from 10.5 million people in 2016."

"Enrollment has been about half of what was initially expected and some large insurers this year have said they were losing too much money on the exchanges because of that and the fact that enrollees are older and sicker than expected," Clarke writes. "Aetna and UnitedHealth Group have largely pulled out of the exchanges for 2017."

Officials said "there are 10.7 million uninsured people who are eligible for the exchanges but unenrolled," Clarke writes. About 40 percent of those people are 18 to 34 years old. (Read more)

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This blog generally follows traditional journalistic standards. It's not about opinions, though you may read one here occasionally. It's about facts that we think will be useful to rural journalists, non-rural journalists who do rural stories, and others interested in rural issues. We don't try to be provocative, so we don't generate as many comments as most blogs with the level of traffic we have, but we certainly invite comments -- and contributions, to al.cross@uky.edu. Feel free to republish blog items, with credit to us and the original source.